# Football Cheerleaders

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-cheerleaders/996089>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Tags:** basketball-nba\
**Created:** [January 15, 2024, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-cheerleaders/996089 "2024-01-15T00:30:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![3AxisCtrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/ecd19e/32.png) [@3AxisCtrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3AxisCtrl)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-cheerleaders/996089/41 "2024-01-15T21:45:52Z")

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Not much emphasis in this thread of the fact that plenty of women regard cheerleading as a _very_ high-status activity. It certifies you as beautiful, popular and in-the-limelight, desirable by most men and envied by many women.

Among other things, this explains why the pay for NFL cheerleaders is low.

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**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-cheerleaders/996089/42 "2024-01-15T22:04:38Z")

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> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#):
>
> Problem was there were thousands queuing up for a few dozen spots. And there was no noticeable difference between the ones on the teams and the ones who’d replace them if they quit.

Ahem!

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**Author:** ![3AxisCtrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/ecd19e/32.png) [@3AxisCtrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3AxisCtrl)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-cheerleaders/996089/43 "2024-01-15T22:12:40Z")

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> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#):
>
> Ahem!

Yes, you were on it.

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**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-cheerleaders/996089/44 "2024-01-15T23:04:54Z")

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> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#):
>
> According to the two Falcons cheerleaders I worked with, NFL cheer squads are more properly what would in high school and college be described as “dance teams” - performing choreographed routines, rather than the tumbling and aerial acrobatics associated with college cheer squads.

My daughter trains at a dance academy. She has done so since she was 3. The academy is fairly prestigious and many of the dancers are pretty successful. I occasionally recognize people who were at her dance academy on TV, in music videos, on Disney specials, and so on. On the last season of the competition show _World of Dance_, a pair of students from her school (that I was acquainted with) were in the finals.

A few dancers who graduated from her academy are competing in the NCAA cheerleading competition this year (from Washington State University). These are women with serious dance training. Ballet, tap, tumbling, jazz, lyrical, hip hop. These aren’t strippers in costumes.

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